Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Mediterranean Chopped Salad - Homemade Healthy Style


Super Yum!
If you are a lover of the Mediterranean Flavors, but are looking for a lighter and very low-cal and low-fat version, then this might hit the spot!  

I used what ingredients I happened to have in the house that seemed like are part of the flavor profile, but there are many things that you could substitute or add to really make it special.  For example, a great feta or goat cheese would be delicious instead of the parmesean, you could use an herb infused olive oil with lemon for your dressing, etc etc.  Those would add a bit more fat to the dish, but it all depends on how much you are really trying to watch it.  This salad gives you some healthy protein, and would be great as a post-workout  meal.

Chopped Salads are fun to make too...just put all ingredients on the cutting board (except whatever you wish to leave whole for appearances, like I did with the olives and the garbanzos) and chop away all together until you have the consistency you desire.


Mediterranean Chopped Chicken Salad
Serves 2

- 8 medium-large romaine lettuce leaves
- 1 grilled chicken breast (I buy the pre-cooked fajita slices to keep it simple)
- 1 tomato
- 1/2 cucumber
- handful of fresh cilantro
- handful of fresh basil 
- 1/2 cup artichoke hearts (I use the canned kind, but there are also frozen available that you can defrost)

- 1/2 cup canned garbanzos (chick peas), rinsed and dried
- 2 Tbls sliced black olives
- 1/2 raw zucchini
- parmesean cheese (to taste)
- low fat italian dressing (to taste)
- dried italian herbs (to taste)
- fresh ground black pepper (to taste)
- sprinkle of sea salt (to taste)


Place first 7 ingredients on a large cutting board, and using 1 or 2 large knives, start chopping away until everything has reached the consistency you desire!

Place chopped ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Using a potato peeler, slice the zucchini into strips into the mixing bowl, avoiding the inner seeds.  Add the remaining ingredients into the bowl, and toss.

Serve immediately!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You had me until "olives". My latest thing is to use that Almond bear naked granola on my salad instead of a crouton. Super yum!

E² - Esther Eve Metalsmith said...

LOL!

Well you can completely leave off the olives and I'm sure it would still taste delicious.

That is a fantastic idea to put granola on a salad...they do need a bit of a crunch so that you can handle eating "Yet Another Salad". I have found that crumbling a cracker or two, or a few tortilla chips on a salad works great as well.

Oil-free pan toasted almond slivers would be a great addition as well.

Fashion Cappuccino said...

Awesome recipe! I love salads so I'll definitely be trying it out! xoxoxoo

E² - Esther Eve Metalsmith said...

Thank you for the kind compliment!

Just a side note, I would add something crunchy to the salad, a couple crutons or some crumbled crackers or toasted almonds...it was super delicious but it was missing the crunchy aspect!

Unknown said...

looks amazing. going to try this tomorrow!